Of Christmas trees and river parades

The day after Thanksgiving here in San Antonio always reminds me of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa. It’s all ceremonial. The public gathers in the one place where people here gather the most: the Alamo. Everybody’s happy. It’s an annual thing. And instead of pulling a rodent out of a box, city dignitaries flip a switch to turn on the Christmas lights. Then, downtown turns into something out of a fairy tale.

Crews install this year’s H-E-B Christmas Tree on Tuesday.

Yes, yesterday morning the police escorted a really big Christmas tree, a white fir from the Shasta Mountains in northern California, to Alamo Plaza. When it’s all said and done, it’s going to have more than 15,000 white lights, jumbo ornaments and corporate sponsorship.

The H-E-B Tree Lighting Ceremony and Ford Holiday River Parade, which I don’t think have ever been officially linked but happen one right after the other, is one of the best Christmas events in the U.S. Seriously. And I’m not just being a homer.

The public gathers at the Alamo, all lit up and pretty on a cool night in the middle of the holiday season. Some city folk say a few words and everybody kind of ignores them. . . then Santa Claus comes riding in on his sled  Santa!  waves his wand around (I didn’t know Santa carried a wand, but who cares) and then the tree explodes with light. With light, people! And for that brief moment, everybody in the crowd has a smile on their face.

The H-E-B Tree Lighting Ceremony is free.

Then the crowd tries to find a spot along the River Walk and wait for those lights to turn on. Then shortly after that, the start of the Holiday River Parade. How cool is that? It’s like a freakin’ fairy tale. I LOVE IT. Most cities in American don’t have Alamos and River Walks to pull off this kind of holiday celebration.

You talk about getting locals downtown. These are the kinds of events that do just that. It’s puro San Antonio, puro holidays and puro family event.

There are more than 120,000 lights along the River Walk during the holidays.

You know, now that I’m thinking about it, if you go to the Paseo del Rio’s Web site, they make no mention of the Alamo tree lighting ceremony. And I’ve seen interviews with H-E-B PR folk who make no mention of the river parade. The scheduling of both events obviously are timed to compliment each other, but why aren’t both sides acknowledging each other’s event? I smell a Christmas conspiracy.